D E LIGHT S| B OOKS
King Leopold II of Belgium ran the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a lucrative private business venture. In the process, about half of the population met their deaths.
tion and reverted to colonial status as the Belgian Congo. So it remained until its hard-fought independence in the early 1960s, whereupon it emerged as the Republic of the Congo. More recently, from 1971 and 1997, it became, as a result of one of the numerous coups in the region, Zaire. The current name, Democratic Republic of the Congo, is not a boast about the democracy to be found there, for the country has managed to elude such status. Rather, it is a way to distinguish the Democratic Republic of the Congo from its next-door neighbour, the Republic of Congo (without the define article before Congo), which from 1880 to 1910 was simply the French Congo. Many outsiders still tend to confuse the two present states. For this reason, the pair of them encourage the informal inclusion of their capital cities (which are in sight of each other) as part of the names: “Democratic Republic of the Congo–Kinshasa” (formerly Léopoldville) and “Republic of Congo–Brazzaville.” The fact that the latter and much smaller nation lives somewhat in the shadow of
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the other only makes Brazzaville Charms: Magic and Rebellion in the Republic of Congo by Cassie Knight (Raincoast, $35) all the more valuable. Ms. Knight is a British specialist in Africa who, following the civil war of 1998– 99, worked for an NGO, Catholic Relief Services, from a base in Brazzaville. Her book’s subtitle is not ironic, for she did indeed find many of the people charming. Although charm, however scarce, is universal, those particular individuals no doubt stood out all the more in a culture that must strike many westerners as bizarre (Bizarreville?). In thoughtful prose that is not overdressed, she also builds up, gradually, layer upon layer, a picture of the country’s decidedly less endearing side, a land where weird occult rituals are commonly observed and many taller residents keep the so-called pygmies as slaves. She is not judgemental, though she has a serious purpose, as when she writes of how the president, Denis SassouNguesso, a former communist who filled a vacuum brought on by coups and assassinations and was himself deposed, only to elbow his way back to power six years later. The president uses the country’s oil revenues to strengthen the military while
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